The Open GIS Consortium Inc. (OGC)
is issuing a Call for Sponsors for an Emergency Mapping Symbology (EMS)
Initiative. This call seeks interested Sponsors to provide input on
technology requirements and concepts to address interoperability needs
for emergency mapping and homeland security. The EMS Initiative will
mature OGC's specification framework for interoperable geographic
symbolization while simultaneously testing emerging standard map symbol
sets for emergency response and homeland security developed by
national-level mapping organizations.

The development of standards for emergency mapping will strengthen
coordination, communication and interoperability. These results enhance
the ability of planners and emergency managers to better understand
mapped information at a glance during crucial decision-making moments.
From an operational perspective, standardized emergency mapping symbol
sets implemented over standard-based web mapping architectures will
support the quick and easy development of multi-source common operating
pictures, giving users a vital shared view of the emergency at hand.
Systems generating common operating pictures using standards-based
software will access spatial and related content from many sources and
symbolize them in a common consistent manner, independent of the
underlying feature classification schemes, data structures or data models.

Through sponsorship of the EMS Initiative, organizations will be invited
to contribute resources and help refine the architecture and testing
requirements for the project. These requirements will be used to develop
an OGC Request for Quotation/Call for Participation. As such, sponsors
of this initiative will establish goals and objectives for the
initiative and have significant input on specifying the requirements for
the interoperable technology testing and development process.

If your organization is interested in driving the evolution of
geospatial interoperability and emergency mapping standards by
sponsoring and/or participating in the Emergency Mapping Symbology (EMS)
Initiative please contact Mr. Jeff Harrison, OGC Executive Director,
Program Development, by telephone at (703) 628-8655, or by e-mail at
jharrison@opengis.org .

The EMS Initiative is part of the next phase of OGC's Critical
Infrastructure Protection Initiative (CIPI), an OGC Interoperability
Initiative designed to test the application of interoperable technology
to meet critical infrastructure and homeland security detection,
prevention, planning, response, and recovery challenges. More
information on CIPI is available at http://ip.opengis.org/cip/.